Near the close of the summer sales season, foreign automakers saw their strongest August in years, though the Detroit 3 also enjoyed double-digit growth thanks to high demand for pickups.

Japanese manufacturer Honda Motor Co. recorded its best-ever August and led the industry with a 27 percent year-over-year increase. Toyota Motor Corp., also based in Japan, trailed Honda at 23 percent but posted its best month in more than five years.

However, sales of the San Antonio-made Tundra were flat. Toyota sales chief Bill Fay said that was caused partly by customers expecting the arrival of a 2014 remodel of the full-size pickup. Truck buyers only began seeing the redesigned Tundra at dealerships late last month.

“That was largely the dealers kind of pushing the (2013 models),” Fay said. “We really didn't have the (2014 models) available to sell. We probably had less than 5,000, (and) a lot of those were probably wholesale in the last week of the month.”

“You'll see that start to turn as we get a better supply of the '14s, which we will in September,” he added.

Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at auto-pricing site TrueCar.com, said truck buyers might be waiting for the new Tundra, which Toyota last redesigned six years ago.

Still, he said Toyota might have lost potential customers to competitors offering better incentives on their pickups.

“That has something to do with it,” Toprak said, “but the other part of it is the competition had pretty high incentives in August to clear out their inventory.”

On average, Toyota offered a $1,942 incentive last month, about $700 to $1,400 less than the domestic manufacturers' incentives, according to auto information site Edmunds.com.

“If you're a business owner looking for a truck, and you're not necessarily brand loyal, the Tundra did not have as attractive incentives,” Toprak added.

Sales of the compact Toyota Tacoma, also made in San Antonio, rose 25 percent in August.

Of the U.S. automakers, General Motors posted the best sales gain at 15 percent compared with August 2012. Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. both recorded 12 percent increases in new cars and trucks sold last month.

Hyundai Motor Co.'s performance was flat last month, and of the automakers to report sales Wednesday, only Volkswagen posted a decline, with sales down nearly 2 percent after huge gains a year ago.

Sales of trucks and SUVs were extremely strong for Chrysler, at more than 120,000. That's nearly three times the company's car sales and may indicate that Chrysler is again becoming overly reliant on trucks for its profits.

Similarly, in its Houston region — all cities south of and including Austin — Ford sold more than three times more trucks than cars last month.

Analysts highlighted the fact that prices for new cars and trucks sold in the United States continue to climb.

According to a TrueCar.com analysis, consumers paid $31,252 on average for a new vehicle last month, up more than 3 percent from August last year. Kelley Blue Book pegged the average price at $31,657, or 1 percent higher than August 2012.

“That means they're selling more cars and charging more for them,” Toprak said.

Analysts and company executives expect the rest of the year to deliver similar results. The fourth quarter typically represents truck makers' best-selling months.

However, Congress returns from a recess Monday, and lawmakers will have to pass necessary spending bills or potentially face a government shutdown, among other fiscal challenges. A prolonged debate could have an impact on the auto market, analysts said.

“If everything else is positive, the auto industry usually shrugs and moves on, as it did in August,” Toprak said. “Look at what happened in the financial market: We had the worst stock market (performance) in over a year but the best sales (of new cars and trucks) in over five years.